Career planning: The 4 kinds of workplaces

According to the World Happiness Report, happiness in America is on the decline. In 2007 we ranked among the 3 happiest countries, but just last year in 2016 we came in as number 19. The good news? Several key aspects of our happiness are in our control. One way to improve overall happiness is finding the right workplace environment. A recent Harvard Business Review gives us a rundown of the four major categories of successful and productive organizations and how they work for their employees.

The company as community.

• This workplace facilitates trust, teamwork, and peer loyalty. The needs of the customer matter just as much as the employee, so this business focuses on what’s right for its people. They believe building a real community of human beings is a main component of a healthy workplace.

A constellation of stars.

• This type of business encourages fiercely competitive individuals to measure their success against personal goals and even against one another. Sink-or-swim, it’s a tough environment – but it’s the right environment for talented people who aspire to be recognized for their skills.

Not just a company, a cause.

• This environment best suits self-effacing employees who worry less about personal happiness or individual triumphs and more about their collective impact. In this workplace, it’s common to willingly make sacrifices to keep customers happy.

Small is beautiful.

• In this workplace, smaller groups collaborate to achieve big goals. Individuals in this environment believe human scale is more important than massive revenue and large market share, that smaller can often be more rewarding than bigger.

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, we work to cultivate each and every individual’s talent while pushing to implement immense growth. Here, you are not just joining a company, but coming onboard to achieve VA’s mission. If you’re passionate about working somewhere with a blend of work environments and a rewarding career that gives back to our nation’s Veterans, consider a career with VA. To learn more, visit our careers page and begin your journey.